Taking On The Billionaire (Redhawk Reunion #1) - Robin Covington Page 0,25
his lips, asking him with a smile to let her finish. “These people, everyone from the social workers, to the police, to the judge, violated the Indian Child Welfare Act. They did this to the three of you. I did the research and I know this. Trust me.”
His returning smile was dim, watered down with the regret and guilt he wouldn’t release.
“I knew something bad was going to happen but I didn’t tell anyone.” Adam huffed out a laugh, brittle with judgment. “When I came home the night before they showed up there were owls in the trees around our house. All in the trees and it wasn’t even twilight.”
“I’m sorry,” she asked. “I don’t think I understand the importance of the owls.”
“Yeah, you wouldn’t. Naturally.” Adam shifted in his seat, reaching out and taking a sip from his beer. His voice was low, quiet and reverent. “In the Cherokee legend—superstition I guess some people would say—the owl is a bad omen. Precursor to death or something bad that is going to happen. I should have said something and I didn’t. Social Services showed up the next day and I don’t remember ever seeing my family again.”
She thought she understood a little bit better now. Adam thought that his not telling anyone about the owls somehow led to what happened, the destruction of his family. It sounded ridiculous, was impossible, but it would have been very real to a six-year-old boy. It would have been very real to someone whose life was based upon such tradition, such legends. It wasn’t her background but she respected that it was Adam’s and it was as much a part of him as her ingrained culture was a part of her own makeup.
But she couldn’t let him carry this guilt. She’d read the reports and the local social workers had wrecked so many families with their blatant disregard for the sanctity of their culture and their lives. There had been countless numbers of children ripped away from their homes, and people who were sworn to protect and ensure that the laws were followed looked in the other direction at the least and abetted the tragedy at the worst. And it wasn’t just in his community where this happened. All you had to do was a cursory internet search and it would spit out thousands of similar stories across the United States and Canada.
But the pain of that day and every day since then was real to Adam. The who, what, why and how were secondary to the fact that his life was never the same.
Tess reached out to him, cupping his jaw and drawing him close enough for their noses to brush in the most tender of touches. His eyes were dark and heavy with his sad memories and she wished she had the power to take some of this from him, to bear it herself.
“Adam, I’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t feel that way or try to ease your pain with a saying from a really crappy greeting card. But I’m going to tell you what I know. Okay?” She waited for his nod, given jerkily in between the ragged intake of deep gulping breaths. “There was nothing you could have done to stop it. And not because you were just a child, only six years old. Your parents couldn’t have done anything. They weren’t connected, educated, powerful. They were poor and doing their best just like every other family. They went through a rough patch and had to reach out to social services for help and got on the radar of an overzealous case worker. The people who should have done better, who should have been better, decided that your family wasn’t good enough for you and your siblings. They also decided that they were above the law and the people who could have stopped them didn’t. So, yes, the owl was the sign of the terrible things that were coming for your family but they were going to happen whether you told anyone or not. And that is the truth.”
The moments slid one into the other. Adam stayed where he was, leaning on her for strength that she was ready and willing to give. It wasn’t a permanent thing, wasn’t a shift of what they were. This was what they were to each other, both strong people who’d had to bear more on their shoulders than what was normally required from a very young age. What they recognized